Gold Cancelled to winds

[De Camara]

Re: Gold Cancelled to winds

Speaking of witch.. no last lap for Lyle Shelton, or Gary Austen, no missing man for them. Just a mention of them and what they did for air racing..

There was a nice last lap for Al Goss, and Vicky Cruise in sport class. Just dont seem right IMHO.

Now thats a DAMN good point there

Saved engines?

Hogwash

I say there will still be the issues that creep up during testing, pre-race, and all night thrashes

Its just part of racing

come big
and go big

[johnnyrace]

Re: Gold Cancelled to winds

I am fine with the decision to cancel...Did I want to see a shoot out ?...Certainly...But odds were good someone would have had a mayday and we already had one lucky pilot survive a most certainly wind affected emergency...Those were serious gusts out there folks.

As for Strega and Steve H getting awarded the championship...I also am cool with that...They were fastest qualifyer and won every Gold race run this week and did so with ease...I have heard all the speculation about GG , Bear , and VooDoo(my personal favorite), but I truly believe that if she was running at the end that Strega would have won anyway...Sure the others may have been holding some back , but Strega has shown , especially over the last two years that she is on top and that it will take a record speed to beat her.

I have to admit though it kills me having to wait a year to find out just how much Leeward was holding GG back....

Disappointing?...yep...but still the best week of my year

[mayday51]

Re: Gold Cancelled to winds

Disappointing?...yep...but still the best week of my year

.......true for us all !!!....

...Thank-you racers and crews ALL !

[deepsky]

Re: Gold Cancelled to winds

I am very disappointed as are most of us here, but I support their choice. A lot of locals who live around the airport are fighting to have them stopped. I think it was a good call.

As for holding the Gold races earlier in the day. I think that most people would leave after the gold.

[tow-3]

Re: Gold Cancelled to winds

just a few points from someone in the pit and also someone who worked the ramp for RARA for years.

the call was 100 the pilots call. I for one am glad they made the call. I wanted to see the races run just as much as anybody, maybe more. we were in the T-6 gold for the first time. but I was able to sit down last night with the crews an pilots for a cocktail and did not have to mourn anyone or talk about re-building a aircraft.

they needed to award places to give out the money. most of the crews need what little money is paid to offset the cost of being here. believe me it cost a bunch of money to field any racer. if they had vacated the standings how would the prize money be split up?

they can't run the races on monday for a lot of reasons. insurance, FAA waivers, and as was stated no people. the people that make it happen all give there time. a lot of them come from long distances to be there and give up 10 to 12 day to be there and have to get back to there lives. they cant just stay another day. you cant run a race without judges, timers, ramp, CFR ect. it just cant be done.

as much as we dont like how it ended up it was the best decision and I applaud those who had to make it.

[Airrace7]

Re: Gold Cancelled to winds

As long as the decision was the pilots to cancel the gold race, I am in favor of it. Disappointed to not of seen the fastest Unlimited airplanes race on Sunday, but nobody got hurt and they can all go back to their families and race again next year is the important issue. I do think RARA should consider in the future the weather when they plan the races on Sunday. They have over the years moved up the Formula and Bi-plane Gold races to early on Sunday. Years ago they raced in the late morning and early afternoon on Sunday till the pilots complained about the wind. It's a hard decision to make moving up the Gold Unlimited race on Sunday, as I am sure a lot of people including myself would leave right after the race. Thinking back over the 35 years of having attended the Reno Air Races I can only think of twice the weather was marginal on Sunday afternoon. One was the year it snowed, and another one was when the winds were the present but not as bad as this year's winds.

I would of liked to have seen if anyone was holding back as it looked like Vodoo added some power on the final lap on Friday's heat race to catch Strega. Rare Bear was having minor problems earlier in the week but she was sounding better and better as the week went on. It's also hard to not want to know how much faster the Galloping Ghost could go. Every time Jimmy landed after an race you could see the happy smile on his face and you had to know in your minds that he was holding back the power waiting for Sunday's race. How much will have to be determined next year.

My hats off to the all owners and teams for allowing me to once again feel, listen and watch all the excitement that goes with the fastest motor sport in the world. Gota love that sound and can't wait till next year!

[MMPerk]

Re: Gold Cancelled to winds

Something that I haven't seen mentioned yet...

The launch of the Bibes and Formula One's was moved all the way down to runway 32. I couldn't be precise, but that alone ate up a lot of time in the morning. I know that I've seen Mike H. trying to hurry things along. Something else that could be considered for the future...how long does it take to tow an aircraft from the pits to the grandstands? There comes a time when things might need to be shifted into hurry up mode. But by that time yesterday, the winds were already getting crazy.

Have a great day, week and year!!

LP

[440_Magnum]

Re: Gold Cancelled to winds

I haven't posted since yesterday, and just want to clarify that I NEVER questioned the decision to stand down for safety reasons. Not for one microsecond. I haven't seen anyone on either board, frankly, who argued that they should have flown anyway.

Its just the lack of a contingency plan that I would imagine frustrates the teams like Ghost, Voodoo, and Rare Bear who either worked their way up to the gold for a chance to run hard, or else were conservative to stay healthy.

Now if they knew a week ago that this could happen and that they were risking not getting that chance and that it might go to the team that chose to always push to the front of every heat race... no whining from me about that. But if that IS the case, then that would have made a good story line all week and RARA could have helped public opinion a lot by letting that be known. Just my opinion.

[Leo]

Re: Gold Cancelled to winds

The weather reports all week were calling for even worse weather, so it was not unknown. I don't know how they could plan for it in any way, maybe some kind of contingency plan could be worked out, but Houghton was right, getting people back the next day would have been impossible. How many of us had exhausted our ability to stay? I could have run over there on a lunch hour for a rematch but we locals are a minority and only the die-hards would show. In RARA's defense, this is the first time in my 35 years there that I've seen them do this for the unlimited gold (correct me if I am wrong), so why WOULD they prepare for it?
I've seen races run in bad weather before, but have no whining about the decision. It IS the pilot's right as far as I am concerned to make that call and I still think it was a good one. As far as owing us as has been mentioned on some posts, they offer no gaurantee for something like this nor should they.

[Gary Osif]

Re: Gold Cancelled to winds

NO ONE was happy.....(maybe relieved since they didn't take the risk of flying in that sh*t!!). Been there MANY yrs and it was BAD ppl!

EVERYONE had more left for the final. It was gonna be awesome!

As anticlimactic as it is, just start planning for next year! Thats the reality of it!

GO

[spacegrrrl]

Re: Gold Cancelled to winds

Not flying yesterday was the right call. But historically, the one time they had a cancellation (due to rain) they raced the following day.

I think the bottom line RARA needs to plan for this make sure those "thousands of people" mentioned in the podcast know the event isn't over till its over, even if that means running into the following week. Waivers should be filed ahead of time to accomodate that.

I think the bottom line here for RARA was the bottom line. There was no money to be made to race after Sunday. I think in the earlier days when it really was more about the racing and less about being a profit center they knew the culture was driven by the racers not the counter of the beans and that final showdown had to happen.

One thing I hate to say though is I bet that most of these racers, even though their owners might not say it now, are just going to be put back in their hangars and largely forgotten till near the event next year. The fact they were basically "race ready" when they were told to stand down is going to make it easy to lose the drive to continue an active testing program for another year. I hope I'm proven wrong but history is on my side.

Spacegrrrl

[Gary Osif]

Re: Gold Cancelled to winds

It's going to give Jimmy time to test GGs race motor!

[Leo]

Re: Gold Cancelled to winds

the one time they had a cancellation (due to rain) they raced the following day.

Was that back in '78? That's the only year I remember them cancelling a bunch of stuff and they still ran the gold once the rain and sleet stopped. Did they end up running those cancelled races in other classes the next day?

[BKB]

Re: Gold Cancelled to winds

I tend to disagree with most here,
I flew out here 1450 miles from the east and all weather sources were calling for 20 to 30 knot winds Sunday afternoon in Stead.(at least 5 days out).
I can watch the snow birds, thunderbirds, cubs landing on cars, and other military aircraft at Oshkosh in my back yard or any other airshow in the country. But what i travel 1450 miles for is the Unlimited Gold Race on Sunday.
Now before you all get mad at me, just listen a bit.
The aircraft i fly are not highly modified warbirds to and past the limit, so if the pilots decided not to fly due to safety concerns on the wind with this very safe sport then i respect their decision as a pilot and don't want anyone forcing any civilian pilot to fly if they think they are uncomfortable about their saftey. I due question if all of the pilots felt it unsafe, but i have no proof to tell me the opposite!

My real "beef" is with the decision person/ persons who runs this event and schedule. With even one of the annoucers saying at 10:30am on Sunday that the winds will pick up after 3pm, and with the forcast for days talking about this wind coming. Someone, please tell me why they couldn't at least move up the gold race a couple of hours when the winds were less, knowing that we can't race the planes now when the winds are more than 30 miles/hour (a rule now i guess we should consider).
I am really pissed at this Race Director/CEO guy yet tonight, instead we were watching the snow birds for it seemed like hours, and could have had the Gold race then instead, and had the snow birds later when the winds were stonger. As stated, earlier, it was no surpise to anyone that these winds were coming.
If anyone hear knows, please tell me why it couldn't be done what i stated above.

Schrambow

p.s.
another point also i thought of,
lets say you had 5 pilots out of 10 that didn't want to race and the other 5 thought it was ok, due to their plane being safer to land that the others in this wind. Then those 5 should race for the gold then- they could have been the tigersharks and stock planes with the larger rudders and less chance of a mayday and such and weren't the clipped planes that are harder to handle. No one should be forced to fly if they thought it was too risky, i agree, but i think some wanted to and it wasn't right for them.

Couldn't agree with you more bro!
I was there listened to them say that higher winds where forecast for after 3PM
Same question I have why not move tho UG up?
I know why...........the bottomline................folks leave after and less concession money to be made.
We can all Monday morning quarterback here. If the decision was truly made without any outside influence(RARA) I totally respect it and honor it.Unless someone that we all know and trust was present at the pilots meeting we will really never know fore sure,
These throttle jockeys we call unlimited pilots are riskers takers,they know what is at stake in this game.It's for real and for keeps.
I'm still super pissed they cancelled the T-6 Gold race.I don't recall hearing them even announce that it had been cancelled.(maybe I was napping?)
WE got to see Greg Poe twice theres another 20 minutes that could have been trimmed.Could have eliminated the duck walk and intros.
That would have sliced 40 minutes at least.
The grumblings I heard from most folks where that they were not happy either.
No point to be made by rambling on. We all have our opinions thats fair.
One last thought:
First time(ok second time) in 46 years the Gold race was not contested.

[Jason S.]

Re: Gold Cancelled to winds

What really burns even deeper is that the weather on the field today (Monday) is beautiful and would be an ideal race day. We were tearing down the pit and flipping off the weather gods.
Jason